Outlook: Dodgers eager to build upon franchise's storied history

Several players have made lasting impacts on the Dodgers over the team's long history, including (clockwise from bottom left) Pee Wee Reese, Kirk Gibson, Clayton Kershaw, Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax.

Several players have made lasting impacts on the Dodgers over the team's long history, including (clockwise from bottom left) Pee Wee Reese, Kirk Gibson, Clayton Kershaw, Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax.

The Dodgers head into their 57th season in Los Angeles as one of the favorites to win what would be their first World Series title in more than a quarter century.

Many of the components that played an integral role in the team’s National League West title and National League Championship Series appearance in 2013 remain as the Dodgers look to build upon one of the most-storied histories in baseball.

The Dodgers’ baseball lineage can be traced back more than 130 years, with the franchise spending the first 73 years of its existence playing in Brooklyn, N.Y. During their time in Brooklyn, the team won the National League pennant 13 times and beat the New York Yankees for the 1955 World Series title.

Some of the baseball’s legends played with the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, including Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Dazzy Vance, Zack Wheat, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Roy Campanella.

The Dodgers continued to build on their legacy after moving to Los Angeles in 1958. They won their first World Series title in L.A. in 1959 and they introduced the baseball world to two of game’s greatest pitchers in Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Other players, including Don Sutton, Jim Gilliam, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, Orel Hershiser and 1988 World Series hero Kirk Gibson also played valuable roles of establishing a winning tradition in Los Angeles.

A new generation of players, led by two-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, will look to re-establish the Dodgers as one of baseball’s elite teams in 2014. With an ownership team entering its second full season at the helm, the Dodgers appear poised to improve on a strong 2013 season.